Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari II

As an ecchi fan, Tales of Wedding Rings Season 2 fills me with pure pride for the genre.

Sure, the stunning princesses and fanservice are highlights on their own, but this season delivers so much more: epic battles against the Abyss King, deep backstories for characters like Granart and Amber, and immersive world-building with diverse kingdoms, cultures, and elemental magic that sucks you in and makes you forget reality.

It's like a lite version of Lord of the Rings—bite-sized, weekend-snackable fantasy adventure that's easy to binge and enjoy.
One thing left me a bit puzzled: the show's take on polyamory and harem dynamics. It teases promoting it (the ... rings demand bonding for power!), yet often narrows focus to Satou and his childhood sweetheart Hime/Krystal, leaving the full harem potential hanging.

If you love epic magical adventures and rich worlds, give this a shot—even if fanservice isn't your thing. But if you're all in on the ecchi? This is an absolute masterpiece.

Dive in and enjoy the ride!

Tale of Wedding Rings, the 2nd Wedding — Much better this time, though not by much since it's cut from the same cloth.

It's only been close to 2 years since the premiere season started for mangaka duo Maybe's 3rd anime adaptation of their works, of which Winter 2024's Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari a.k.a. Tales of Wedding Rings, was supposed to be their redemption after the rather mediocre Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi a.k.a. To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts, after 5 years. And let's face it, both the original manga source material and MAPPA's Summer 2019 adaptation just didn't really cut it for what was supposed to be ... the stereotypical fantasy with a twist that really looked unique on the outside but didn't have quality going on inside. On the flip side, of the two works that I would rather invest my time in being the better work (outside of Tasogare Otome x Amnesia), the former truly sticks out like a sore thumb, but I can 100% guarantee you that it's a more digestible series than the latter in both good and bad ways. And with the follow-up sequel for Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari, I really have to say that it redeems whatever was bad about Season 1 and amplifies it tenfold for Season 2, but in a decent way that's handled better than expected.

With Season 2 continuing where we left off with the development of the new Ring King Haruto Satou and his Ring Princesses harem, there's a lot of exposition and plot for the developing story to face the Abyss King, though there's even more infighting for the troubles that they have within themselves before they're even strong enough to consider taking down the legend that lost his way. For starters, don't really expect Satou at this point to change a lot (at least for the sequel's beginnings), as he has his hands tied with not just the larger matter of his role as the new Ring King, but also that it's putting his long-term relationship with Krystal "Hime" Nokanatika at risk because the two have been seriously putting off their romance for the longest time. And to add a bit of flavour into the already-muted relationship, comes the only new face in Season 2 — Hime's younger sister, Morion, who tries to force some romance shtick on the couple in order for Hime to reach out and get her romance face on, because she's a lot more expressive than Hime with her little sister energy.

Basically put, Satou and Hime's relationship has always been the one constant being put on limbo since the very beginning of their true reveals and the roles they have to execute, and that has largely remained the status quo. Even in front of the Ring Princesses Nefritis, Granart, Amber, and Saphir, where these 4 are even more ambitious and don't have their pretences when hiding their love for Satou, it's always the key area of frustration when it comes to Hime second-guessing whether she should be serious for Satou. Thankfully, when push came to shove, Hime DID trust Satou all the way to the end and wholly entrusted everything to him, so the harem didn't even faze her in any way possible (well...only albeit minor).

Everything about Season 1's production can be applied to the sequel here, as average as Staple Entertainment-produced shows go, because they generally are just mediocre at best. Even the music is a mixed bag that, ironically, goes hand-in-hand with Season 1. With Sizuk's music featuring AYAME, of the 2 OPs for the season, I have to say that Season 1's OP was a lot better than the sequel's OP, though by no means is it bad. And replacing AliA for Season 1 is Akari Kito's ED, which I swear was inspired by Pachelbel's Canon for a wedding-like feature for the Ring Princesses, which, BTW, IS the plot itself that is better than the former for obvious reasons.

As a whole, Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari a.k.a. Tales of Wedding Rings as a series, is an exercise in frustration trying to take the fantasy and combine it with action and romance, which itself should work for the most part, but it's just somehow dragged on to create a bare-bones impact at the end of it all. This is not to blame the mangaka duo, though their writing skills having to match those of Kemono-tachi since they were in parallel serialization at the same time, severely impacted both series in churning out rather sloppy fantasy stories in the making. This is a warning to authors who try to do too much at the same time, and lest you care about quality, focusing on a sole project as opposed to doing double-duty, you'd end up with two or more projects that are just as equally forgettable as they come.

So, ask yourself this question: Is it worth having a harem to save the world, or having just one girl and making her your world? In the Tales of Wedding Rings, this is perfectly acceptable, though your mileage will vary.

I don't recommend this anime, not even for ecchi fans. First of all, the excessive focus on fanservice instead of character development is a major problem. The author could have deepened the relationship with each girl, but simply prefers to show us more and more breasts. I understand that the work has ecchi, but here the ecchi feels forced and artificial. A passive protagonist with a harem being shoved down our throats is one of the hardest things to swallow. An example of this is that he only loves Hime, but the other princesses end up being attracted to him without any convincing emotional development. ... This weakens the harem dynamic and diminishes the impact of each girl, making the relationship with each of them quite superficial. As for the backstory of the protagonist needing to save the world, I didn't expect much, but what attracted me to watch was the romance, and that part left much to be desired.

For me, the best scene was the interaction between Granart's mother and her, which is by far the funniest and cutest moment at the same time.

As for the animation and soundtrack, they are reasonable and not terrible. That being said, I only watched it to the end because of Granart, who is by far the best female character. It's a shame that she barely had any romantic development and was treated only as "another princess to increase the protagonist's power."